Chapter 133: Ninth-Rank Ghost Spirit

Before Cold Heaven stood a cavern. At a glance, its interior appeared pitch-black, with sinister drafts blowing from within and waves of icy air rushing into his face.

“Boss, this is the chill from beneath the earth. It seems the opening in this mountain extends deep underground!”

“Indeed...” Cold Heaven replied and stepped into the cavern.

The passage was not very spacious, allowing only four or five people to walk abreast. Three-colored light revolved within his eyes, enabling him to see clearly despite the darkness. A dozen meters ahead was as bright as daylight. Moss covered the cavern walls, and the damp smell was overpowering.

The passage twisted and wound downward in a gradual curve. Along the way, Cold Heaven found no trace of Nan Ling, but he did encounter the corpses of several strange insects. From his examination, they had all been killed only recently; the blood on their bodies had not yet dried.

They continued downward for several kilometers. By then, the temperature inside the cavern had fallen so low that an ordinary person would have frozen to death. Platinum radiance flickered across Cold Heaven’s skin, keeping the bitter chill several inches away from his body.

Cold Heaven had now reached the depths of the mountain. As he proceeded, he occasionally spotted small amounts of Jade Spirit Stone embedded in the walls. Most of it was low-grade and no larger than a fist.

He was not drawn to the Jade Spirit Stones appearing every few steps. His attention was instead fixed on the crisscrossing claw marks on the rock walls. The marks were arranged in neat rows, as though someone had carved a road through the mountain, and they continued deep into the darkness.

“Heh-heh... Boss, these Jade Spirit Stones may be small, but they are still valuable! Since you do not want them, I will take them all!”

Judah shifted his fat body through the passage in flickering flashes. One by one, he dug the variously colored Jade Spirit Stones out of the walls and swallowed them whole.

“It is clear that the demon race began excavating downward from here. The dense claw marks on the walls say it all,” Cold Heaven thought.

Then a thunderous roar of exploding energy reached his ears.

“Nan Ling must have encountered an obstacle... Let us go see what is happening!”

Cold Heaven quickened his pace, flashing through the dim passage like a white phantom.

“The more demons guarding the place, the better. By the heavens, my true form and divine manifestation... Come at me more fiercely!” Judah howled inwardly as he followed Cold Heaven toward the depths.

Nan Ling gripped a dark-gold saber only three inches wide. Facing him were four Armored Beasts, relentlessly launching fierce attacks.

Each of the four Armored Beasts stood more than ten feet tall. Their massive tails swept across the ground, sending loose stones flying and making the cavern walls boom with dull impacts.

Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew in all directions as the saber in Nan Ling’s hands was knocked high into the air.

“What astonishing defenses! Even my treasured blade cannot injure them in the slightest!”

Though shocked, Nan Ling did not stop attacking. Streaks of saber light flashed, followed by savage waves of saber energy that hammered into the bodies of the four Armored Beasts.

The saber energy was powerful enough to split mountains and sever rivers, yet when it struck the enormous bodies of the Armored Beasts, it merely raised a string of sparks without causing them any real harm.

“Haah!”

With a furious roar, Nan Ling leaped into the air, gripping his saber with both hands as he brought it crashing down upon the head of one of the beasts. His tremendous momentum stirred a fierce gale that descended heavily upon its skull.

“Roar!”

The Armored Beast bellowed in rage. Its steel-hard tail swept horizontally toward Nan Ling, whose body was suspended in midair. Feeling the immense force carried by that tail, Nan Ling’s expression changed. He dared not take the blow head-on. Stamping one foot against the beast’s head, he borrowed the force to drift backward.

The enormous tail whistled past without striking him. Instead, it slammed into one side of the cavern wall, shattering a patch of deep-green Jade Spirit Stone and scattering the fragments across the ground.

“What a formidable demon beast. Even with my cultivation, I cannot do anything to it. All those Jade Spirit Stones are right in front of me, yet I cannot take them... No wonder he looks so distressed!”

Nan Ling landed on the ground, his expression shifting between gloom and uncertainty as his mind raced for a way to defeat his enemy.

“Oh? Is that not Senior Nan Ling? We parted ways only recently, yet look how miserable you have become. You cannot even deal with a few crawling beasts. Do you need this junior to lend you a hand?”

Dressed in white, Cold Heaven appeared several meters behind Nan Ling. Seeing him being driven into such a sorry state by the Armored Beasts, Cold Heaven spoke loudly, his voice full of mockery.

Nan Ling’s heart jolted. He turned around warily and saw Cold Heaven, who had disappeared for so long. His face immediately twisted into a vicious expression.

“You little bastard. I was just worried that I could not find you, and now you have delivered yourself to me. Hand over the Profound Spirit Fruit, and perhaps I will spare your life. Give it to me!”

With a sinister smile, Nan Ling extended one arm, waiting for Cold Heaven to produce the Profound Spirit Fruit and hand it over.

“You may have the fruit,” Cold Heaven replied with an equally broad smile, though his expression was filled with ridicule, “but first you should see whether these two will let you leave.”

A flash of crimson light appeared, and Snowfold and Dark Maple materialized before Nan Ling, their faces filled with murderous intent.

“How is this possible? You were not already...”

Nan Ling was so overwhelmed by shock that his voice trembled.

“Dead, you mean?”

Snowfold and Dark Maple wore grim expressions, their killing intent palpable as they advanced toward Nan Ling step by step.

Cold Heaven instructed Judah, who was floating nearby, “The four big brutes are yours. Do not make too much noise and alert the demons here. That would complicate matters.”

“You can rest assured, Boss!”

With a howl, Judah transformed into a green-eyed dire wolf and pounced upon the four Armored Beasts.

“Would the two of you like my assistance?” Cold Heaven asked Snowfold and Dark Maple with a wicked grin.

“With Brother Cold’s help, nothing could be better,” Dark Maple said. “Help us capture him, and you can take the Jade Spirit Stones as well.”

As he spoke, he struck across the distance with one palm toward Nan Ling’s chest.

“Very well!” Cold Heaven shouted in satisfaction. “Old Nan Ling, your crimes are countless. You once schemed against me as well. Today marks the end of your road!”

The three of them surrounded Nan Ling, sealing off every avenue of retreat.

Nan Ling’s expression became exceedingly ugly. He had never imagined that Dark Maple and Snowfold would still be alive, much less appear before him full of vigor. His hatred for Cold Heaven surged to its peak.

“Cold Heaven, you little wretch! You have opposed me at every turn. I regret not killing you on the spot back then!”

Grinding his teeth, Nan Ling pointed disdainfully at Dark Maple and Snowfold.

“You think those two pieces of trash alone can capture me?”

“Nan Ling, prepare to die!”

After Dark Maple struck with his palm, Snowfold roared and shot forward. Both fists erupted into a storm of shadows that enveloped every part of Nan Ling’s body.

“Ahhh!”

A shrill cry tore from Nan Ling’s throat, so sharp that it scarcely sounded human. Dense deathly energy coiled around him, while mournful winds and ghostly wails echoed through the long passage.

“Your true nature is finally exposed,” Cold Heaven sneered. “You abandoned the path of a human martial artist to cultivate the ghost arts, a path rejected by heaven and earth. And you are merely a ninth-rank Ghost Spirit. How embarrassing that you would show off such a thing. It seems you have truly fallen.”

Snowfold and Dark Maple were both stunned. Their attacks were swept away and dispersed by the dense deathly energy.

“Nan Ling, you actually cultivated the ghost arts! Are you not afraid of becoming a laughingstock among the martial artists of the world? If word gets out, the world is vast, yet there will be nowhere left for you to stand!”

“Hahaha...”

Deathly energy coiled around Nan Ling as ghostly howls rang out. He laughed wildly.

“As long as I kill all of you here today, none of that will matter.”

“I would not be so sure.”

As Cold Heaven spoke, platinum-colored energy erupted from his body. He flashed instantly before Nan Ling, his enormous platinum fist driving straight forward.

Boom!

Nan Ling had not expected Cold Heaven to be so fast. The sudden punch crashed heavily into his chest. He let out a muffled groan, his face turning deathly pale as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

The deathly energy coiling around his body was shattered by the force of the punch. Cold Heaven stamped his right foot against the ground, and with a thunderous boom, the recoil sent Nan Ling’s body flying backward.

Cold Heaven pursued him with rapid footwork. Nan Ling’s face was pallid, his heart filled with terror. He stared at the approaching Cold Heaven in horror. In desperation, true essence surged from within him, forming several inches of pale-gold protective energy outside his body to block the next strike.

“It is useless,” Cold Heaven said disdainfully.

Three-colored light flickered at his chest, and behind him appeared the illusory image of a colossal mountain peak. An immense pressure descended directly upon Nan Ling.

At the same moment, his fist struck.

When the force of the mountain manifested, the tremendous pressure caused the several-inch-thick protective energy before Nan Ling to tremble violently before shattering apart.

Under that overwhelming pressure, Nan Ling’s pale face instantly turned purplish. His flying body slammed violently into the hard stone floor.

Boom!

The muffled impact shook the entire cavern. Cold Heaven’s second punch struck Nan Ling’s dantian with unerring precision. Amid a wretched scream, Nan Ling’s dantian was shattered.

Once a martial artist’s dantian is destroyed, the consequences range from complete loss of cultivation to immediate death. To prevent Nan Ling from being killed, Cold Heaven sealed his meridians with the domineering milky-white energy within his body at the instant the dantian broke. This prevented the violent surge of energy from exploding outward and tearing Nan Ling apart.

With a forceful pull of his palm, he extracted a thumb-sized dark-gold core from Nan Ling’s dantian. He closed his hand around it, then turned and tossed it to Dark Maple behind him.

Dark Maple and Snowfold were both utterly shocked. They had known that Cold Heaven’s cultivation was formidable, but witnessing it with their own eyes was another matter entirely.

Nan Ling’s cultivation surpassed theirs, and he possessed several secret techniques personally passed down by the Supreme Emperor. Even if the two of them joined forces, they would not have been confident of defeating him in a short time.

Yet in the blink of an eye, Cold Heaven had severely wounded him with thunderous force, crippled his cultivation, and even extracted his core. The sight left both men pale, cold sweat rising in their hearts.

Dark Maple mechanically caught the dark-gold core Cold Heaven tossed to him. Staring at Nan Ling’s core in his hand, he gaped at Cold Heaven and stammered, “Brother Cold... you should... keep it.”

“It is useless to me. Take it.”

Cold Heaven kicked Nan Ling’s body aside and began walking deeper into the cavern. Then his expression suddenly shifted, and Judah’s voice reached him at the same moment.

“Heh-heh... There is still a ninth-rank Ghost Spirit hiding here. Just what I need to replenish myself!”

“I am a servant of His Majesty the Ghost King,” declared a tadpole-shaped Ghost Spirit, bobbing its oversized head arrogantly. “If you let me go, I will put in a good word for you before the Ghost King. Once His Majesty emerges from seclusion, he may even spare your insignificant life!”

Cold Heaven stopped and looked at the Ghost Spirit floating before him with an amused smile.

“The Ghost King is nothing special. He poses no threat. Judah, what are you waiting for?”

“So he did not cultivate the ghost arts after all. There was merely a little ghost hidden inside him.”

Laughing, Cold Heaven flashed toward the end of the cavern, no longer paying any attention to the ninth-rank Ghost Spirit.

Chapter 133: The Ninth-Rank Ghost Spirit — Complete.